It is sad if the weapons are used for murder and torture, but if they are used to defend a country from aggressive neighbours then you can say often they prevent war rather than create war.

Of course it is more common for weapons to deter aggression than promote it.

Equally it is rare that a burglar will use in his defence the fact that the victim didn't have a high fence or an expensive alarm system.

_________________“The West won the world not by the superiority of its ideas or values or religion […] but rather by its superiority in applying organized violence. Westerners often forget this fact; non-Westerners never do.”

― Samuel P. Huntington, The Clash of Civilizations and the Remaking of World Order

Bottom line is though that we need to export weapons; for our own defense. It's necessary in order to bring profits and thus maintain the viability of large production capacities and continuous R&D into new weapons systems. Export orders are one of the main drivers of that.

First of all there are joint projects with India, France, Italy, China, etc... on weapon systems that are in demand by both militaries, and/or in 3rd countries. In this case, exporting such weaponry is not only up to Russia, but also to its partner in development.

Many other weapons are geared specifically for export and are not required by the Russian military; yet without sales and demand for these models they wouldn't sell and none would be researched and built apart from that which the Russian military demands. Which would deprive Russian specialists and holdings from very useful development experience and results; that could perhaps come in handy later or could be used to further enhance systems that are required by the Russian MoD.

Many of the weapons systems that the Russian military does demand would be unjustifiably expensive if exports of them were prohibited; as the Russian MoD orders alone might not be in high enough digits to create a viable economy of scale.Thus the result would be that Russia would have to import quite a few of its military hardware.... from countries that DO export weapons.Either way, you can't win - arms industries will continue to profit it's just a matter of whether it's yours or the other guy's.

KRET - something to think about and another success story from Russia.

KRET hopes to export contracts for $ 300 million

KRET signed contracts for 2014 by 24 billion rubles

KRET - the largest Russian holding electronic industry. It was founded in 2009. The concern includes 97 research institutes, design bureaus and production plants located throughout 28 regions of the Russian Federation.

KRET fulfilling defense orders announced for this year

In 2013 began production of new KRET and systems: in particular, multi-role fighters 4 + + generation Su-35 and a promising fifth-generation fighter PAK FA (T-50) mounted inertial navigation system BINS-SP-2.

For a family of tactical multi-role fighters MiG-29M and other fighters of the family corporation "Fazotron-NIIP" (included in KRET) produces modern radar type "Beetle".

Great 13.2 bin $ sold and now we have to wait for Almaz-Antej and other to publish their exports.

Russian Arms Exporter Sold $13.2Bln in 2013

MOSCOW, January 27 - RIA Novosti. "Rosoboronexport" in the past year received and considered about 1.9 thousand applications from foreign customers, was signed about 1.2 thousand contracts, said CEO Anatoly Isaykin in an interview with "Kommersant" , which is published in Monday.

Earlier it was reported that the "Rosoboronexport" plans in the next three years to keep the volume of military exports at about $ 13 billion per year. In the future, you can expect an increase in the number of shipments, Isaykin said, noting that revenue is unlikely to exceed $ 15 billion, based on the capabilities of national "defense" and foreign customers.

Well the UK could certainly do with new rifles, but I rather suspect they would buy German rifles before they bought Russian ones.

It would be useful for them to buy Metis-M1 ATGMs as a Milan replacement, and the RPO-M would be a useful practical weapon too.

Would be interesting if the Brits bought the ADS rifle... the SBS would love the underwater ammo capability. (SBS being the British Naval equivalent of the SAS... SAS = GRU Spetsnaz, while the SBS = Naval Spetsnaz. SBS stands for Special Boat Squadron).

The British could licence produce Igla-S for themselves and export, and Rolls Royce could probably work with Russian companies that make engines to see where they can improve each others systems.

It would be much more profitable to work together than against each other... even though the natural tendency is mistrust.

The irony is that the UK and the Soviets were allies in WWII yet because of the cold war the UK has a better relationship with Germany and Japan than with Russia. Of course because of history Britain probably has a better relationship with Germany than it does with France...

_________________“The West won the world not by the superiority of its ideas or values or religion […] but rather by its superiority in applying organized violence. Westerners often forget this fact; non-Westerners never do.”

― Samuel P. Huntington, The Clash of Civilizations and the Remaking of World Order

Rosoboronexport interview, on the conclusions of 2013. -The firm delivered 13.2 billion worth of contracts in 2013. -Export portfolio on December 2013 stood @ 38 billion USD.-Negotiations with China regarding Su-35 continue. Matters of discussion are price and technical specifics. -The accusations of the 4.2 billion deal with Iraq being tainted with corruption and bribery are unfounded. -Angola was granted commercial credit to buy the used Su-30Ks. -Syria is a closed topic. But contracts were and are being worked on.-Syria did indeed sign for 36 Yak-130, but any information about the planes being delivered is incorrect. -Contract for 24 Yak-140s for Bangladesh signed. They were granted a 1 billion credit. -Talks with China regarding 4 Amur submarines have been held, but it is too early to talk about contracts of any kind. -Rosobornexport maintains contact with the Libyan government. -All S-400 deliveries until 2016 will be for the Russian military. Negotiations have been held with several contracts, but had to be pushed back. -Russian Banks used to be wary of giving out credit to buy Rosoboronexport weapons. Today they are very willing and secure in such loans, since a number of earlier ones have been paid back. -Commercial credits (by Russian banks) are easier and more flexible than government loans. They work with banks including VEB, VTB and Sberbank.

MOSCOW, March 24 (RIA Novosti) – The volume of Russia’s arms exports this year has topped the $2 billion mark, with outstanding weapons orders standing at $47 billion, a senior government official said Monday.

“As of today, Russia has supplied military products worth $2 billion to its foreign customers,” said Alexander Fomin, the head of the Federal Service for Military-Technical Cooperation.

Last year, Russia exported $15.7 billion worth of weaponry, up $2.5 billion from 2011, with plans to increase annual arms sales to $50 billion by 2020 in a race for the top spot.

Russian shipments accounted for 27 percent of global arms exports last year, just behind the United States at 29 percent, according to a report published last week by the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute.

Among the major importers of Russian weapons and military equipment are India, China, Vietnam, Indonesia, Venezuela, Algeria and Malaysia.

Fomin, who was speaking ahead of a defense exhibition in Chile, said that Russia is prepared to negotiate contracts on a wide range of military and civilian products with its South American partners, including Beriev Be-200 amphibious aircraft, Irkut MS-21 mid-range jet airliners and regional Sukhoi Superjet-100s.

According to Fomin, Russia would also propose licensed production of technologies with Chile, a traditional customer of US-made weapons.

“We are offering our Chilean partners a localization of production in their country, which is certainly a very beneficial aspect of our proposed contracts.”